Baked Churros

Baked Churros

We've already been celebrating this week with one of our favorite sweets - churros! It's almost unbelievable that it's taken me so long to blog about them, considering our dog is named Churro. It's true, we love them that much! And we love our little ridged-face Churro-the-Pug.

Check out those wrinkles!

Churro love

These are no ordinary churros because they're baked, and at first, I wasn't sure such a thing could be done considering they are so wonderfully crisp when fried. It took a few test-runs (and the endless brushing away of cinnamon-sugar from my shirt front) but now the recipe is ready to share!

These pastries bake until slightly puffed, then you toast them within an inch of their life under the broiler. They're best fresh and served with a side of dulce de leche or chocolate sauce. They are so light and delectable straight from the oven, I couldn't help but eat exactly three and a half immediately. Which ended up being my lunch. Oops!

These are made as normal churros are - from choux paste. I've found that these bake best when piped in long thin sticks. I used earth balance margarine in the batch pictured, but I also made a batch with unsalted butter that was successful - they just puffed up slightly larger than the margarine version. Overall, the baked version is less crisp than the usual fried churros, so it's important to toast them well under the broiler so they're as crisp as possible. You can store leftovers (if there are any) in an air-tight container but they will become soft. You can remedy this by placing them under the broiler for a few minutes (watch carefully) and they will regain their former crispiness. Serve with prepared dulce de leche, chocolate sauce, marshmallow fluff - they're good with everything!

1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
In a medium saucepan, stir together 1 cup water, brown sugar and salt. Add butter and place over medium-high heat. Heat until butter is melted and mixture starts to boil. Remove from heat and add flour, stirring with a wooden spoon. Mixture will clump and pull away from the sides of the pan. Mix/mash with wooden spoon until no streaks of flour can be seen.2. In a small bowl, combine eggs and vanilla. Scramble mixture with a fork and then add to the dough-ball in the saucepan. Stir and mash, breaking up the dough until loosened. Stir well until eggs are incorporated and mixture has the appearance of mashed potatoes.

R: dough clumps when flour is stirred in; L: texture is like mashed potatoes when eggs have been fully incorporated

3. Transfer dough to a piping bag fitted with Ateco decorator tip #867. You could also pipe the dough in a zip-top bag with the corner snipped, but the churros will be ridge-less (delicious, nonetheless).

4. Pipe dough into long thin lengths on the parchment covered pans. Use a pair of kitchen scissors to cut the end of the dough from the piping tip. Leave about 2-inches of space between the churros.

Use scissors to cut the dough ends.

5. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until slightly puffed. Turn oven to broiler setting and watch carefully as churros toast and turn deep golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool slightly. Transfer to a wire cooling rack. If you're baking the churros one pan at a time, be sure to return the oven setting to 425°F before putting in the next pan.

6. Combine sugar and cinnamon and pour onto a long dish. Roll churros in mixture. Serve.

Tips!

Piping tip 867 made by Ateco (also known as French Star size 7) is just about the most perfect tip for piping these churros. It has a 9/16 diameter opening. I experimented with a few and this made them just thick enough and produced the most prominent ridges.

Add a pinch of cayenne pepper to the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Brings little heat and adds a faint smokiness.

I had no problems with the cinnamon-sugar sticking to the hot churros, but if you let them cool to room temp they might resist the sugar. Brush churros with a tiny amount of olive oil using a pastry brush, then roll in the sugar mixture.

As I said in the description, these will become soft and rubbery if stored in an air-tight container. Put them under the broiler (even if they've been rolled in cinnamon-sugar, this works!) they'll come back to life and crisp up under a watchful eye. Re-roll in cinnamon sugar.

Heaven is a churro! I love the idea of baking them and can not wait to try them out! If you have a second swing by my blog on Valentine's I'm sharing raspberry pink champagne macarons that ya might like.

This is like an answer to my dreams! : ) I've been thinking about churros a lot lately (for some bizaree reason). I think it has something to do with a Nigella Lawson show I watched where she fries up a batch of them. I've been wanting to make it but the frying part is a turn-off. I would love to try this. Thanks for the recipe and for all your hard work in getting it just right! : )

I'm almost embarassed to admit it, but I love deep-fried desserts. So I am really intrigued by these churros, as they're baked. I'm curious how the texture might differ from deep-fried ones. I guess there's only one way to find out!

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hello!! this is my first recipe from your blog (which is amazing) and I think it may just have been a mistake on my part but the churros were a bit too mushy inside. I'm thinking my egg was too large. anyway I tried broiling/regular baking it for more time but the only thing that hardened was the crust. it doesnt matter though, they're great either way (I'm also looking forward to trying more recipes off of your blog)

These taste great and are quick and easy to make, for me. They may not be the real McCoy, but what you might call a generic. It is amazing that some people have to make noise about a recipe, but make it and think it is good, but want to complain about its name. I rate a recipe as to my family and friends tasting and how hard or easy it was to prepare....Not its name. Would these taste any different if they were called a knock off of Churros? Remember also they are baked, not fried and better for you!

😊I've followed your recipe, except for using the correct tip. 😯😯But when I bake my churros in the end they turn out like bread sticks... would it be because I'm not using the correct tip? & right now Im using a plastic star tip. Plz let me know I have a project due this Thursday and I need to bake 40 churros for each student 😫... Thank you!

I followed the directions word for word, but my churros were a bit mushy inside and definitely didn't have the same crunch as a fried churro. I also think this recipe could have done without the egg whites as it made the dough taste a bit eggy. Overall for a baked churro they're pretty good. If I make these again I'll probably omit the egg whites and make the churros a bit thinner.